


I Beat You to It

by snowyspemily



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Romance, Spemily - Freeform, this is one of my favorite fics that i have ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 08:24:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7794532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowyspemily/pseuds/snowyspemily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spencer stumbles upon something she wasn’t supposed to, and for once, she’s going to act on how she feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Beat You to It

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note from August 23rd, 2015: Hello! I decided to write this in celebration of once-upon-a-spemily (on tumblr) turning 1 today(or rather yesterday, for me). It’s one of my favorite blogs’ birthday, how could I not celebrate? So I wrote this inspired by this post (http://imaginetheotp(dot)tumblr(dot)com/post/127142801745/whos-the-one-from-your-otp-that-proposes-and-how) and the idea kind of just blossomed from there. I hope you like it :) i apologize for any mistakes, its very late lol

She found it accidentally. She definitely wasn’t trying to look for it, nor did she even know it existed to begin with. She’d simply been looking through some books that she practically hadn’t touched in years. It wasn’t as if she was expecting a little black box to fall out of Emily’s edition of The Sun Also Rises, she was just looking for an old photo album. She’d even tried to excuse it, assuming that it was a present they must’ve forgotten to give someone sometime ago.

The assumption went out the window, of course, when she opened the little black box to find a very nice ring - a very expensive looking ring - staring back at her. Her mouth dropped open in absolute shock as she stared at the breathtaking, absolutely stunning ring in front of her. She could practically see her reflection in the brilliant blue gem staring back at her. Blue Zircon - her birthstone. Emily sure did know her well.

She laughed a little and hadn’t realized that she was tearing up until felt a tear run down her cheek. She wiped at it quickly and took a sharp breath before hiding the box once more behind her girlfriend’s beloved book. She went over to the sofa in their living room and sat down, a silly smile on her face as her heart thundered against her chest at the discovery. She shook her head and laughed once more, tears welling up in her eyes against their own accord again.

Emily had beaten her to it.

Spencer had been thinking about going into one of the jewelry stores she often passed by when coming home from work, for months now, but she always stopped herself for hundreds of silly reasons. What if it was too soon? Granted they’d been dating for three years now, but it could still be too soon. What if Emily didn’t like the ring? She knew her girlfriend wasn’t picky about that sort of thing, but the best deserved the best, and Emily was the most amazing human being on the face of this Earth, at least to Spencer.

The most daunting of all her worries was, of course, the scariest.

What if Emily said no because she didn’t feel the same way? If Spencer had proposed and been rejected because the love of her life didn’t feel the same intensity as she did, she’d probably walk out into the middle of their very busy street and wait for someone to hit her.

But now, sitting on their couch, in their little apartment that they bought and lived in together for almost a year now, she felt ridiculous. She should have bought it when they moved in.

Hell, she should have bought it the day she found out she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Emily, which wasn’t very long after she met her, honestly.

She found it a little funny that Emily seemed to beat her to everything. Emily had been the one gutsy enough to ask her out - only because Spencer was terrified of destroying the friendship that they’d had for years. Emily had been the one who leaned in first - because lord knew that Spencer would have short circuited if she had even attempted take a risk that would change her life forever. At least they’d mutually decided to move in together, but even then she was worried. What if Emily thought she was too high strung or too sloppy or a weird combination of both? What if she got annoyed when she stayed up late studying for exams or when her feet were too cold?

It turned out, however, that Emily didn’t think any of those things. To her surprise, Emily was even neater than her, to the point where she actually got up early to tidy their apartment on the weekends. Spencer had learned to love waking up to the feel-good music that Emily liked to play while cleaning. And when she stayed up late to study for exams, Emily gladly stayed up with her and quizzed her until she was practically dreaming about all the information she took in.

And, fantastically enough, Emily loved Spencer’s cold feet. She said they were comforting for her, since hers always felt too hot. Spencer had laughed at that, and she could remember the butterflies that the statement had given her. She would have thought that after three long years, those silly butterflies would have stopped by now. They never did.

Of course, Spencer did things for Emily, too. On days when Spencer didn’t have classes and Emily’s classes were early, she’d always get up an hour earlier to cook her breakfast and pack her a thermos of hot coffee - four packs of sugar and some milk, just like she liked it. And when Emily had unbearably, grueling practice, Spencer was there to massage her aching muscles, along with some Advil and dinner, for when her practices ran extra late.

They took care of each other when they were sick, they went to each other’s jobs to have lunch; hell, they even left sticky notes on the bathroom mirrors for each other. In every way you could look at it, they were practically married.

So, why not make it official?

Spencer stood up from the couch and checked the clock. It would be about two hours before Emily got home from practice. She grinned with confidence and rushed to their front door to grab her wallet and a coat. She didn’t even bother going back into their room to dress like a normal person to go out, but she’d made up her mind.

Emily wouldn’t beat her to this one.

—

Emily turned in bed on Sunday morning, mostly asleep, as she adjusted herself with a sigh. Today she had no work, no classes, and no practice, and Spencer didn’t have work until later that day, so she could cuddle with her for as long as she wanted. It was by far her favorite day out of the week. She usually used the day to tidy the house, but she wasn’t really feeling it. Plus, the house was never extremely dirty - one of the pros of having a girlfriend as high strung as she was - so she decided she’d sleep in, just this once.

Her tired mind vaguely realized that Spencer wasn’t as close to her as she wanted. She reached out for a moment, to pull her girlfriend closer, until she felt it. There was something on her finger. She opened her eyes tiredly and had to blink a few times to get them to focus. When they were finally working, what she found staring back at her was a beautiful silver ring with a cloudy yet vibrant stone staring back at her

Moonstone - her birthstone.

Her mouth opened in shock as she stared at the gorgeous, stunning ring on her finger, unable to pry her eyes away from it.

“Surprise,” She heard in a whisper and looked away to find Spencer smiling at her adoringly. Her heart floated away at the sight, and she could feel herself losing her breath, both over the ring and the girl who had clearly slipped it on to her finger. “Do you like it?”

“I - ” She was absolutely speechless. She didn’t even know what to say. There were so many thoughts racing through her mind, so many emotions - happy emotions - overwhelming her that she swore she was going to either faint or scream - happily. “Spencer, I - ” A thought suddenly struck her.

An engagement ring with her birthstone on it. Just like . . .

Oh. Oh no.

She found it. She found her ring. This was all because she found her ring.

Emily put her hands over her face and groaned, not at all the reaction Spencer was hoping for. Her stomach dropped as worry overtook her. Did she not like it? Had she … Had she changed her mind?

“You found it, didn’t you?” Emily muttered through her hands and it took Spencer a second to understand before she laughed a little.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.” Emily responded, prying her hands from her face to look at Spencer with a look of defeat. Spencer couldn’t help but smile at the sad pout that Emily had on her face. Even in serious situations, it was adorable.

“Why?” She asked, truly unsure of why it mattered. Emily’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration before she sighed and looked back down at the astonishing ring still on her finger. God, she’d only seen it a few minutes ago but she was already in love with it. She’d wondered if her love for it was because of its beauty, or because Spencer had given it to her. It was most likely a mixture of both.

“Because, Spencer,” She murmured, and Spencer didn’t miss the clear tone of worry in her voice. “Did you do this because you wanted to … Or did you do this because you found out I was going to.”

“Em,” Spencer whispered back, surprised that her girlfriend would say such a thing. Was she really unaware of how in love she was with her? “Just because I found the ring doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do this.” She let her hand go to rest on Emily’s hip while she watched her girlfriend toy with the ring on her finger. “In fact, it gave me the push I needed to do this. And I’m doing this for so many more reasons than finding the ring.” She assured, trying to find the right words to say to assure Emily that she absolutely wanted to do this.

“I’m doing this because you went to see Saw V with me, even though you hate gory movies more than anything on this planet. You were the only one brave enough to try how I take my coffee, and that alone deserves a reward.” Emily smiled a little, and Spencer could feel her body shaking with silent laughter, causing her own smile to widen. “I’m doing this because you’re my best friend, and I have always, always loved you, Emily.” Emily looked up at Spencer and was a little shocked to see her girlfriend’s eyes a little redder than before. Spencer laughed and closed them, trying not to lose her train of thought. She had so much to say, and she wasn’t going to lose another chance to say it.

“You’re it for me.” She admitted after opening her eyes and shrugged with a little laugh. “You’ve always been the one. I always hoped it would be you. I guess I kind of knew it was too, but I always made up excuses because there was no way that someone like me could ever deserve someone like you.” Her voice had cracked halfway through the sentence, and Emily could already feel the telltale ache behind her eyes and the tightening in her throat that warned her of oncoming tears. But these weren’t tears of sadness. Far from it. These would probably be the happiest tears to fall from her eyes in her whole life.

“But you love me, for some reason - ”

“For many reasons.” Emily interrupted with a smile, reaching up to wipe one of the tears that escaped her eyes. Spencer smiled back, her own eyes shining happily.

“And I know that I don’t want to share my cold feet with someone else.” Emily laughed, letting the tears fall freely now. “I don’t want to share my terrible coffee with anyone else. I don’t want to share my life with anyone else. Just you.” Spencer admitted, smiling happily and nervously. Her heart was going a million miles a minute, and she was sure that if she lifted her hand from Emily’s hip, it would probably start trembling uncontrollably. But she’d gotten this far, now it was time to seal the deal.

“Emily Fields,” She said with a watery smile, taking in a deep breath to calm herself. “Will you marry me?” It was Emily’s turn to smile, mostly grin. She was absolutely speechless for a second, to the point where all she could do was nod furiously, making Spencer break out into more laughter.

“Yes!” She said finally, reaching for her girlfriend to pull her closer. “Yes, yes, yes.” She repeated over and over, until she met her lips in a kiss, still smiling happily. “A thousand times yes.” She murmured, wrapping her arms around Spencer’s shoulders to keep her close as they kissed.

When they finally pulled away, deliriously happy and laughing, Spencer reached up to wipe the tears that were still falling from Emily’s eyes, and Emily did the same as they both tried to calm down.

“You know,” Emily said with a shaky exhale, stroking Spencer’s cheek with her thumb. “I wanted to say all of that.” Spencer grinned back and nodded.

“I know,” She murmured, tucking a piece of hair behind Emily’s ear and letting her hand rest on the back of her neck. “I finally beat you to it.” She said with a wide smile before pulling her in and giving her new fiancé another kiss.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Wedding Dream Book](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7894249) by [Miss_Vanderwaal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Vanderwaal/pseuds/Miss_Vanderwaal)




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